I finally pulled the trigger and bought this pair of Oakley Jawbone sunglasses! Since I sold my Specialized Arc-X glasses I’ve needed another pair of riding glasses and these should be great! The fit is so much better for me and I have the option to add prescription lenses to the frames so I can use them for driving! When they arrive I’ll be sure to write up a quick review and put some photos up on the site. Anyone else have any experience with the Jawbone?

I’ve been using Gixen eBay Sniper for quite some time now and for me it is the only way to bid and win on eBay. I’ll be updating my drivetrain before the springtime so I’ll give the site quite the workout! Check it out at the link below!

Well, it has been over a month since my last update to the blog and quite a few happenings have gone on. I raced in the Massasoit XC race and had marginal success. The month between Root 66 races from Massasoit to Winsted was a nice breather that really let me settle down and decide what I wanted to do for the summer. Justin and I spent plenty of ti

me just going out to Penwood, Robinson, and Case to just ride and enjoy ourselves. I have been averaging about three days riding per week with a combination of road and mountain.

During National Ride Your Bike to Work Week I took my ‘cross bike all the way to New Britain. It is so nice to be able to take the rail trail for 18 miles! The ride out in the morning was beautiful; cool, quiet. I met my friend Marc in Farmington and we rode the final miles

together. Each way was pretty much 30 miles for me and getting into work felt really good. After working eight hours and then having to ride home the same 30 miles was a bit less enjoyable. New Britain at rush hour on a Friday in 85* weather isn’t totally advisable! The final ten miles were pretty tough as I just wanted to get home, but my legs wouldn’t let me get there quickly.

The following day, Kerensa dragged me for 18 miles headed North on the rail trail up to Southwick where the trail is still under construction. I couldn’t

believe it, but my legs were so trashed from the day prior that I was having a tough time keeping up! Any acceleration from my ride leader just put distance between us. Racing at Winsted was a serious maybe at this point. I decided to wait until the morning and decide then how my legs were feeling.

I d

etermined over the month off that I didn’t want to pay good money to ride around the back of the pack with no chance of winning. If I’m not feeling 100% I won’t race. That reasoning was exactly what made the decision for me in regards to Winsted; my legs were roasted from Friday so I called the race off. It worked out for the best as I got to complete some home projects that I’ve been meaning to do.

That brings me to really what has consumed most of my training time recently; making the condo ours! From simple things like fixing the doors so they close completely to more complex projects like replacing the in-ceiling bathroom fans. As I’m writing this we are on day #7 of a re-painting of our half bath. Why wallpaper glue has to be so strong that it could hold a race car together is a question that I asked many times. After the demon wallpaper was removed, we had the toilet flood, causing 1.6 gallons of water to pour onto the floor and into the ceiling of the finished basement, ruing a couple of tiles. As with most projects, I’m starting to learn that if something can go wrong it most definitely will! We have a hard deadline of next Saturday so this week will be more project completion than biking.

The time has come for me to let the cat out of the bag; I’ve got a new machine in my arsenal. You’ll have to check my Equipment page for the whole story, but I got a KILLER deal on this bike that will be my race backup/training bike for this season until I can upgrade some of the components to make it more “racey”.

I almost forgot to post this so better late than never. Last Friday I get a call from the guys down at Competitive Edge Ski and Bike in East Longmeadow, MA. The call was to let me know that my shoes were in and ready to be picked up at any time. Of course, I rushed over there right after work and much to my amazement, before me sat a pair of the brand new 2010 Specialized S-Works MTB shoes! At first, the patent leathery looking material took some getting used to, but it grew on me. My first ride with them was on Saturday and other than one cleat being a bit too far forward everything felt great! The best part about the whole deal was that I bought the original pair in April ’09 for less than the $300 sticker price and rode them on the road for the entire season. I send them back for warranty work, get the 2010 model ($350 sticker price) and get to ride brand new shoes all over again! This time I will wear them in the woods. Only if its dry.

Today was the start of my eating according to The Paleo Diet for Athletes. After a nice breakfast of meat, I had meat for lunch and meat for dinner. I’d say that I should be able to follow this pretty well. Tomorrow looks like we’ll have fish for dinner! MMMMMM!!!!

Since I have this week off of work and an influx of Christmas cash, I decided to get some books to educate myself about nutrition and training. Currently, I’m reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordian and Joe Friel. The general basis of this eating plan is that the human body has evolved for millions of years with non-processed foods. These foods are what our “human machine” runs best on and this book utilizes the nutritional benefits of foods that cavemen ate with the performance benefits of modern-day carbohydrates. I’ll keep this short as I have lots of reading to do!